I need a good boot cd-one for the computer experts.

joemardo1

Hi there,

I need a good downloadable boot cd that will enable me to boot into my computer and is able to see the hard drives and will be able to format them etc. I use to use the startup floppy disk (that I coped onto cd) but it is no good anymore for the large NTFS that I have.

The reason I need it is after getting my computer last week quad core with windows 7 I tried to install windows xp (going down the easybcd route) but it didn't work and even then I couldn't get get windows 7 to install, nor was able to use any repair or recovery options in windows 7 or partition the drives. I thought the pc might have to go back for repair but was lucky in the sense I was able to go into xp install disk and was able to delete and create a partition which enabled me to install xp and then windows 7.

Any good suggestions for a bootable cd that will enable me to partition and see drives if windows xp and windows 7 fails to start?

many thanks
Joe

fwor

Joe - Any of the Ubuntu variants (Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu) can be booted and run as a LiveCD, and all include GPARTED which is a partition editor with a graphical interface.

There are other smaller distributions that have GPARTED as well - it seems to be the most commonly used Linux partition editor.

BTW, you will probably need to Unmount any partition that you want to edit, as the kernel auto-mounts all partitions that it finds when it boots up.

gonzo127

really depends on what you want to do if they fail, windows should have the repair option on their CD's when you boot them which will allow you to sort most windows problems out, however if you just need something to boot up so you can get your information from your drives then ubuntu is very helpful as it allows you to run the entire OS from a CD without installing anything, this then gives you access to your drives so you can get things off - this however will not allow you to format your drives in NTFS and will not help fix any of the underlying problems with windows (other than allow you to do a virus scan on your drives)

fwor

Almost forgot - there's also the Super Grub Boot Disc, which I've used before when Windows screwed up my boot loader. It was initially created to fix Linux boot loaders, but it has now been extended to work with Windows - though you might need to check that it has Win7 support yet.

It has a rather "interesting" user interface, but it worked Ok for me...

Richie-from-the-Boro

Hirens Hirens or Hirens,

- be aware that Win7 uses two active primary partitions one of which is hidden to most partitioning [ and backup ] tools out there !

- a better way would be to do the same thing on a bootable USB stick

"" Any good suggestions .. .. .. fails to start? "" Just stick a cheepo HDD drive on your MOBO as drive and backup using Win7 backup each Friday, it's faultless, takes less than 3 mins, and because it's so quick people will USE IT !

Lil306

BartEPE or as above Hirens Boot CD.

I prefer Hiren as it's got Norton Ghost on it too good for backing up hard drives

fwor

Lil306 wrote: »

BartEPE or as above Hirens Boot CD.

I've looked into both in the past, but the thing I couldn't decide: are either of these legal? They both ~seem~ to be based on unauthorised/hacked copies of other peoples code. And is there a safe place to get either of these from?

Lil306

fwor wrote: »

I've looked into both in the past, but the thing I couldn't decide: are either of these legal? They both ~seem~ to be based on unauthorised/hacked copies of other peoples code. And is there a safe place to get either of these from?

BartPE has been out for a while. It's got stripped down versions of peoples code and is well known but no one seems to have shut it down.

Hirens' Boot CD is legal, but I can't remember if it's free or not. I downloaded mine from a link on their website which has since gone I believe

EDIT - Just type Hiren in google, there is a link there which says it's free. So it's not illegal material.

closed

Have you trashed the recovery partition, if not, restore to factory defaults and run xp in a virtual machine if you really need it.

fwor

Lil306 wrote: »

EDIT - Just type Hiren in google, there is a link there which says it's free. So it's not illegal material.

What? Just because it says it is free means that is not illegal material? I'd want something a bit more conclusive than that...

BartPE is Ok because "no one seems to have shut it down"? Oh, right, that's fine then.

Anyone know if either is ~actually~ legal?

bat999

About Hiren, from Wikipedia:-

While this collection of tools can be very useful, potential users should note that many of the tools are commercial applications that have not been legally licensed for redistribution, and so download/use/sharing of Hiren's BootCD may be illegal (depending on your legal jurisdiction).

Link:-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiren%27s_BootCD